Tuesday, December 3, 2013

I love finding good soup recipes to enjoy during the fall. This is one of my favorite soups to make, but since Ryan has no love for broccoli, I don't get to enjoy it very often! I recently made this for friends and kept a few bowls for myself.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped onion

3 tablespoons margarine

6 cups water

6-8 bouillon cubes

8 oz. egg noodles

2 - 10 oz. package of frozen broccoli

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

6 cups milk

1 lb. cubed velveeta cheese

To make:

Saute together onion and margarine. Add water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Add noodles, cook 3 minutes. Then add broccoli, cook until tender. Stir in garlic powder, milk, and velveeta. Heat until cheese melts.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Both Clare and Jude donned Native American apparel for their respective Thanksgiving play and Thanksgiving feast to start off the long weekend.

We put our Christmas tree up on Friday, but not before cutting out all 1000 lights on our pre-lit tree. That was an all-day event in itself. As we were nearing the end of that ordeal I began to wonder if the time we had "saved" by the ease of the pre-lits in years past was catching up to us in the time we spent cutting out the lights...

And she was very pleased with her seasonal Sunday best yesterday and asked Ryan, "Just how gorgeous do I look!?" (She also wanted to show her puffy slip to the man and son behind us at Mass. Thankfully she asked me first and was told no.)

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I got my sewing machine out last week and made easy alterations on 2 pairs of jeans, hemming one piar and taking in another. This tutorial by Refashion Mama on hemming jeans, and keeping the original "jean" hem was great - I'm going to keep it in mind the next time I'm shopping for my short self.

And this tutorial by Freshly Picked on altering jeans by taking them in on the sides was very helpful. Glad I took the plunge on both of these are have been loving having 2 "new" pairs of jeans to wear!

The only picture I have of my work was of me in the mirror, standing on the toilet in my altered jeans for my fashion grad sister...not worthy to post. But she did approve!

Have you heard about this??? It's a free app that lets you choose deals/coupons (5-50% off!) to use at Target. Just select which deals to add to your cart and then present your phone when you check out to be scanned. So easy! Love me some good dealz!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

I love a good crock pot recipe, especially one for soup this time of the year. This recipe came from a recipe exchange I did this spring and we finally tried it out for the first time a month or so ago when the fall temperatures hit. Ryan, Jude, and I especially love it! (Jude keeps telling me that "spinach in soup is really really good!")

So in that spirit and with the upcoming holiday, we made a Thanksgiving tree of sorts over the weekend. I simply stuck a large tree branch in a pot with rocks and we were good to go. (Of course Michael has become interested in those rocks...thankfully they are too big to do any damage!) I printed out tags for everyone to write out what they are thankful for. Simple. And the kids are really enjoying it! And I love seeing what they have come up with over the past few days.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Some friends of our's recently joined the 4 kids club and welcomed their new addition almost 3 weeks ago. I brought them dinner the other night - one of the perks of having a newborn! I always feel like you get a lot of casseroles with the addition of a new baby, so dinner for our friends included...

Monday, November 4, 2013

Michael is at an age where wearing a necklace (and having him ignore it) is nearly impossible. In fact, he recently broke one of my favorites right off my neck. Thankfully (?) it broke all over my kitchen floor and I was able to collect all of the beads and fix it.

I actually saw this idea for a "teether necklace" on pinterest and made one for myself (before he broke my beads).

To make your own you need a scrap piece of fabric (I didn't measure before I started...mine was probably 4 inches wide and about 48 inches long tops...depends on how long you want it and how large the beads are) and large wooden beads (I used 6).

I took the piece of scrap fabric (of course I'm not daring at all and stuck with off white!) and sewed it, making a tube that would fit snug around my beads.

I made a knot in the very center of the fabric, then added a bead, then made a knot. I added 3 beads and 3 knots on each side of the original knot. (This was just so I knew I had centered everything.) When I was finished, I sewed the 2 ends of the necklace together.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Once upon a time I saw this idea on pinterest of how I could bling-out our island by adding some inexpensive beadboard. Fast forward to having a carpenter in the house when we did our floors. And nicely asking if he could cut the beadboard and trim I bought for $40 and put them up for us...(because he would know what he was doing and it would take him all of 10 minutes to do so).

Hello my name is...

I have been married for 9 years to a husband that makes me laugh everyday. I stay at home with our 4 kiddos and spend my days folding laundry, filling sippy cups, and thinking of ways to make our house a home. My husband will tell you my one weakness is a bag of oreos...and I would have to agree!